The Maps
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Glasgow's plans were documented in enough detail that they can be plotted onto Google Earth's satellite photography and distributed as a map overlay. Install it and you'll see the whole plan, accurate to within a few metres, and showing all junction layouts. It is a mix of A Highway Plan for Glasgow and The Greater Glasgow Transportation Plan: in general, where the two differ, the map shows the most interesting variant, and usually favours the original proposal.
If you don't already have Google Earth, you can obtain it for free from earth.google.com. It works with Windows, Mac and Linux and requires a high speed internet connection.
How to use the Overlay
You will need a working version of Google Earth installed on your computer.
Download the file above and double-click it to open it with Google Earth. You will see a new item in the 'Places' box to the left of the screen, called Glasgow.kmz, and the program will zoom to an overview of the Glasgow area showing the proposals.
You can zoom and scroll around the map as normal; the roads will show at all altitudes. As you zoom in you'll be able to see the individual junction layouts.
You can customise your view of the routes: click the plus or arrowhead symbol next to 'Ringways.kmz' in the Places box to expand the listing. You can then tick or untick each section to choose which ones you can see.
The roads are colour-coded:
- Motorways - shown in blue.
- Expressways - shown in red. On expressways not all junction layouts are shown as many would have been at-grade signalised junctions, roundabouts or priority junctions.
You can continue expanding each of these sections to turn on or off sections of the plan or individual lines. If you wish to identify a specific line you can double-click it to re-centre the view on it.
If you want to keep the Glasgow routes to view again, drag Glasgow.kmz from 'Temporary Places' to 'My Places'. It will then be available every time you load Google Earth.